The present invention is generally related to a method for producing an executable configuration of a system program entirely or partially loadable into a system memory area of a processor system depending on the available storage capacity in a system memory area.
To achieve an optimally high degree of functional flexibility in program-controlled processing equipment, software, i.e. the system program to be executed by a processor system of the program-controlled process equipment, may not be unmodifiably programmed into read only memory modules. On the contrary, every time the program-controlled processing equipment is switched on, the system program may be loaded from an external storage medium into a system memory area of the processing system which is provided with write/read memory modules. Program modifications and additions may be undertaken given loadable system programs without operations performed on hardware of the program-controlled processing system. A new version of the system program containing the modification or addition is produced by the manufacture of the system program or, respectively, the program-controlled processing equipment, for example, may be deposited on a floppy disk that is then made available to the user of the program-controlled processing equipment. When loading the system, the new version of the system program is then transmitted into the system memory instead of the previous version.
When the functional scope of program-controlled processing equipment is to be expanded, the system program must be supplemented by appropriate program sequences. This may then result in the storage capacity available in the system memory for loading the system program being no longer adequate to accept a new, augmented version of the system program. Users of such program-controlled processing equipment which require the functions which may be executed with the new version of the system program must, therefore, incur a cost-intensive enlargement of the system memory.
On the other hand, users having no need for the additional functions or for whom the cost outlay for a memory expansion is not economically justifiable cannot be expected to forego improvements and corrections in the functional scope of the system program which was previously employed because modifications in the previous functional scope are only undertaken in the versions of the system program that expand a functional scope, and the memory configuration in the program processing equipment of the user is not adequate for loading these new versions of the system program.
The manufacturers of program-controlled processing equipment and their system programs usually counter this problem by offering and servicing a plurality of system program versions for the same type of program-controlled processing equipment depending on the memory capacity available in the system memory.
Such an offering and servicing of system program versions requires a new version to be prepared for all system program versions affected by the change which is given every change in the system program. For the manufacture of the system program, "software care" involves considerable outlay under these conditions particularly given a multitude of system program versions to be handled, for example, for producing, archiving and allocating versions.